The present invention relates to a dental prosthesis and a process for preparing the same, and, more particularly, to a dental prosthesis which can be stably and steadily supported on an alveolus ridge of a patient, and the process for preparing the same.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional dental prosthesis 1. The conventional dental prosthesis 1 comprises artificial teeth 2 and a denture base 3 holding the artificial teeth 2. As shown in FIG. 2 which is a sectional view taken along line I--I of FIG. 1, the denture base 3 has an inner surface 4 of inverted U-shape in section. At this inner surface the denture base 3 fits to mucosa of an alveolus ridge 5. Generally, the dental prosthesis 1 is constructed so that the dental prosthesis can be easily detached for the purpose of washing. However, the dental prosthesis 1 often comes off against user's will, or causes uncomfortable tenderness or pain due to slipping under mastication movement, because the dental prosthesis 1 has no particular fixing means.
To resolve the above problems, there is proposed another conventional dental prosthesis as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, where a recess portion 6 being provided on a bottom of the inverted U-shaped inner surface 4 of the dental prosthesis. According to such a construction, during the mastication, air within a chamber (FIG. 3A) defined by the recess portion 6 and the alveolus ridge 5 escapes through the surfaces between the denture base 3 and the mucosa of the alveolus ridge 5, so that pressure in the chamber is reduced. As a result, the dental prosthesis 1 is sucked to the alveolus ridge 5. However, when the dental prosthesis 1 is used for a long time, an alveolar gingiva deforms and projects into the recess 6 and occupies the chamber as shown in FIG. 3B. As a result, the effect of sucking is lost, which causes the dental prosthesis to come off.
FIG. 4 shows another conventional dental prosthesis. In such a dental prosthesis, in order that a fitting property to the alveolus ridge is improved and the tenderness is reduced, an elastic lining layer made of an elastic rubber material is provided on an inner surface of the denture base 3. The elastic lining layer is adhered with a commercially available adhesive or is mechanically or structually engaged with the denture base. However, such a structure cannot also prevents the dental presthesis from coming off from the alveolus ridge.
An object of the present invention is to provide a dental prosthesis which resolve the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior art. More particularly, an object of the present invention is to provide a dental prosthesis capable of being stably fitted and adapting to smoothly perform masticatory action.